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Monday, September 17, 2007

The Crying Game - The O.J. Simpson Do-Over Has Arrived!

You would think O.J. Simpson is the only person, who supposedly got away with murder.

You can hardly turn on the TV today (or over the weekend) without coming across some breaking news or a “hard-hitting” story about O.J. Simpson and his alleged burglary in Las Vegas. This post isn’t even about whether O.J. was the mastermind of a burglary or not. Truth of matter, I don’t give a damn about O.J. Simpson. Don’t wish him any harm, but don’t care about him. What’s been interesting is just watching all those White news reporters falling all over themselves—and taking attention off of really important issues impacting the country today—all because of little old O.J. Simpson.

What prompted me to write this post is a comment made b a White reporter on cable news, who said, “Wouldn’t be ironic if they get him [O.J.] on burglary, when they couldn’t get him on murder?”

GET HIM! “If they get him…”

That sums it all up.

For more than a decade, O.J. Simpson has been the Negro that got away. To put it into historical context, O.J. Simpson is the ni**er Whites couldn’t lynch at noon. O.J. was one of the few Black people, who could afford to play the legal system the way Whites have longed played the legal system (Claus Van Bulow, anyone?). And, right or wrong, he walked free. And, many Whites got all beside themselves. As a result, Blacks have been listening to Whites play the crying game every since.

But, I never shed a symbolic tear. Yes, any time someone is killed it’s a horrible thing. And, you hope their murderer is brought to justice. But, when Blacks have shed tears over the murder of someone like 14-year old Emmett Till, for instance (dragged out of his house and murdered in a horrible way for allegedly whistling at a White woman), Whites have wanted us to shut up and let bygones be bygones. Regarding convicting the two men accused of murdering Emmett Till, the lawyers for the defendants told the jurors: "Your ancestors will turn over in their grave, and I'm sure every last Anglo-Saxon one of you has the courage to free these men." Sixty-seven minutes later (after a soda break), his killers walked free and then admitted to his murder in a magazine (they were paid $4,000); it was all supposed to be good. They were cleared by a jury of their peers after all, right? It was a “fair” trial!

So, I say this…you can’t demand that Blacks shut up, when it comes to getting justice for “their own” and then demand that Blacks scream and holler, when you don’t think you get justice for a couple of “your own.” You can’t have it both ways. That’s why some Blacks have been amazed at the White response to the O.J. Simpson case. See, we’re accustomed to seeing someone get away with murder, civilians and cops (Amadou Diallo, anyone?). We’ve learned to lick our wounds and move on, even from some of the most horrendous crimes imaginable.

Without even getting into the horrors of slavery, I’ll reserve my tears and outrage for my Black brothers and sisters, who were lynched, shot, beaten, dragged, blown up in churches, etc. by Whites, who went unpunished by the legal system. They went unpunished because of refusals to conduct investigations, the concealment of evidence, the destruction of evidence, corruption by police officers, perjury by witnesses and the accused, and by juries refusing to send “one of their own” to jail for killing a Black person.

Some Whites have historically held the attitude that any Black complaints about racism, especially racism in the judicial system, amounts to nothing more than Blacks being a bunch of cry babies and Blacks refusing to take accountability for the fact that we are supposedly predisposed to engage in illegal activity. “You know how those people are.”

Blacks have historically had to listen to Whites tell us that our men and women in the legal system got a fair shake. “They had a jury of their peers.” Here’s what’s funny…when a Black person has an all White or predominately White jury, we’re told we’ve had a jury of our peers. And, we’re told that those Whites were open-minded, fair, and determined to uphold the law.

But, when O.J. Simpson got a jury of his peers, which just so happened to be a predominately Black jury (vetted and agreed to by the prosecutors), this jury of peers was accused of being stupid, accused of intentionally ignoring evidence, and accused of playing the race card in O.J.’s favor. Again, White people, you can’t have it both ways. A jury of peers is a jury of peers. Yet, all weekend and today, I’ve heard countless disparaging remarks about O.J. Simpson’s “Black jury.”

Whites got their crack at O.J. more than a decade ago. Now, he’s finally given them some form of a do-over.

The truth is we will never stop hearing about the trials and tribulations of O.J. Simpson—even if he goes to jail for up to 30 years, as every White reporter on news has been salivating over today. Until O.J. Simpson is dead and buried, Whites are never going to let him (or any other Blacks) forget how angry we collectively made them, when O.J. walked free and Blacks didn’t condemn him to the satisfaction of many Whites. Maybe this will all stop, when O.J. is dead…

On second thought, even when he’s dead, Whites will still be talking about the one that got away…for a while anyway. They might even dance a jig on his grave. It’s the only thing left to do, when you can’t perform the lynching—even a symbolic one.

Until then…get ready for more of the crying game. Blacks have been dealing with this sh*t for centuries!

A jury of his peers found him not guilty. Bottom line. Suck it up. The evidence presented reasonable doubt to the jurors. Just as the evidence against Robert Blake presented reasonable doubt in the allegation that he murdered his wife. More evidence against Robert Blake than O.J. Simpson...why isn't the press stalking Robert Blake? White on White husband/wife murder not sensational enough?

Oh, and Phil Spector with the gun in his house? Where's the guilty verdict and where is the outrage that there isn't one? Again, white on white may make the difference in the level of anger people have when there is a perception of a miscarriage of justice.

"the White response", "by Whites", "Whites will", etc. Really though, how will attributing a 'racist' trait to everyone of some skin color help anything? It's just delusional and pretty ironic in a sad way. Sure it helps make pointing your finger this way or that way a lot easier, but that hasn't been shown to do anything more than causing more conflict. The solution here is pretty simple: if an injustice happens today, by all means, do something about it. I see no reason to feel upset with anyone other than yourself for not taking some course of action.